Is Pride Your Greatest Enemy?

When pride stops us from admitting our mistakes, it starts a vicious circle of lies, denial, cover-ups, etc., that makes your stinking mess go from baby-size to elephant-size. I had a big earner once make a mistake, he put a low price on some "damaged" goods we had, and that caused the Family to lose a lot of money. Instead of admitting he f'ed up, he stirred up a cocktail of lies and bullcrap to defend his pricing.

He was too damn proud to admit that, after a string of successful business ventures, he blew the game. He lost a lot of respect for his attitude, and he came out looking like a babbo to his crew. He hasn't recovered since.

bill gates makes mistakes

Great businessmen admit their mistakes, swallow their pride and change their ideas or strategy when they see the light. You library-lovers love Bill Gates, right? Didn't he initially say the "interneto" was a passing fad? Didn't he admit he was wrong, change his company around, and then become the most powerful force on this virtual thing of yours?

Too often, even very smart men refuse to cut their losses and change direction. It's stupid. It's bad business. Pride in these circumstances can get very expensive. What if Gates stuck to his guns and was too proud to admit his mistake? How many billions would that have cost him? Can you afford to be that right ?

My own organization faced these same issues a few years ago. We had a choice: Either we stuck to the old way of doing business, or we changed our traditional rackets, even if it meant going into new territory. Long story short; nowadays businesses are more legit than those guys you read about in Forbes' richest people list.

pride = enemy = lost opportunity

Pride is a very powerful human trait. It can drive people to do very strange things. Even the limp Greeks have a story about going to war to defend the pride of one man who lost a woman, that Helen of Troy broad. I know it's a Greek story, but it illustrates my point. (Hey Kosta and Mokakis, don't bother e-mailing me, I don't want to hear it. Tell your Greek tragedies to those fat wives of yours.)

Pride clouds your judgment; it makes an otherwise logical man too emotional. Decisions get made for the wrong reasons. Perspective goes out the window. Pride affects your ability to see the big picture because you are hell-bent on defending your position, even if what you are defending is as trivial as the Pope's bladder problems. I'm guilty too; you have no idea how many hours I have lost defending Italy's national soccer team, and for what? I still think they are the best no matter what arguments are presented to me — and my Pork-and-cheese friends still think Portugal's soccer team is more important than my dog's diarrhea. Get my point? Capito ?

Pride can turn you into a very bitter old man, you know the type — always looks like someone just stepped on his foot or like he just swallowed donkey crap. All this unpleasantness can give you a heart attack. And why would we do that to ourselves when our wives are perfectly capable of doing it for us?